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Abh
The “Abh” (アーヴ) are space-dwelling people in the fictional universe of “Crest of the Stars”. They are the rulers of an interstellar civilization with feudal government and social structure. The “Abh”, also known as the “Carsarh Gereulacr” or “Kin of the Stars”, are a subspecies of human which were originally artificially created humanoids. They were created for long term space exploration in place of humans by a nationalistic group of Japanese descent. Once they roamed space as merchants. Now they live throughout The Milky Way Galaxy within their own territory of the Humankind Empire of Abh. Definition According to the Seikai novels of Morioka Hiroyuki, there are six ways that define a person as an Abh: “The Abhs as a Race/Nation/Ethnic Group” is the most commonly accepted definition amongst the citizens and subjects of the “Frybarec” (Abh Empire). “The Abhs as a Social Class”, according to its definition in the story, any person, regardless of race, who is either of royalty, of nobility, or of the knighthood of the Frybarec is legally an Abh. Hence Rock Lin, Jinto Lin, Atosryac ssynec Atosr Lymh Raica Feubdash Srgumh, and Samsonn borgh Tiruser Tirusec are deemed Abhs though they may genetically be “grounders”. Nonetheless, all their children must be genetically modified to become “natural” Abhs. Attributes Though they are not considered as such by those not under Frybarec and a large percentage of its own subjects and citizens, the Abhs are human beings who practice genetic engineering so as to maintain physical features that allows for better adaptation for living in space. Such features include the “froch”, space sensory organ, which is a compound eye made up of a bundle of approximately 100 million smaller eyes found on Abh foreheads that, with the help of an “almfac” or tiara connected to the ship, helps Abhs to sense the ship’s directions and processes; such information is processed at a special section of the Abh brain called the “rilbidoc” or “voyage field” which allows them to make decisions that will make them navigate their ships with greater accuracy. Other physical traits mark them different from other human beings, such as the requirement that all those who are born Abhs should possess blue hair, and from each other, the Abriel clan are distinguished by, and are the only Abhs allowed to have elfen ears. Physical characteristics The Abh had been created with blue hair and a spatial-sensor organ on their forehead. The spatial-sensor organ is a compact visual organ with roughly 100 million receptors. It enables them to receive information via light from a headpiece known as an alpha. Unique to the Abh is the navigational lobe that serves to process information from the spatial-sensor organ. Their body has been modified to accommodate both high gravitational force and weightlessness. Their frame and circulatory system have also been adjusted to function under such conditions. Over time the Abh have established a tradition of features unique to each family clan. The most famous and elusive feature by law are the Abriel ears only found with members of direct Royalty. It was incredibly difficult to guess an Abh’s age from outward appearance alone. During the stage of development from birth until the age of fifteen, the Abh mature like regular human. After that, from the beginning of their adolescent stage, their appearance matures only ten more years. The entire process takes approximately twenty-five years. The Abh do not show any physical indications of aging beyond twenty-five. The Abh do not get drunk when drinking alcohol. However, it is a different matter when it is being injected into the blood stream, which is bad either way. Physical growth “Racial” Abhs generally have longer natural lives than other humans—they may live up to two hundred and fifty years. Their developmental cycle is also distinct: until the age of fifteen they physically develop just like other humans which they call the period of growth (“zarhoth”), but for the next 25 years after that they go through a period of maturation (“féroth”) where they physically age the equivalent of ten years worth of aging of a “normal” human; they stop aging (at least as seen on the surface of their bodies) after that, hence remaining youthful in appearance until they reach natural death, which is triggered by a special gene programmed to make a person’s body slowly shut down when he reaches his 200th to 250th year, thereby avoiding shameful senescence. Reproduction The Abh reproduce like humans. However, the Abh mostly use artificial fertilization and artificial wombs. Some women, do practice conception in the old fashion way as well as carrying the embryo in her own womb for the unique, personal experience. Genetics The Abh usually tinker with the genes of their children to prevent hereditary ailments and guarantee racial unity. They specified more than twenty-seven thousand nucleotide pairs in each child’s DNA. The Abh have genetically made their digestion system and liver more efficient in breaking down alcohol. Abh children were manufactured to their parents’ aesthetic tastes, which were similar to many land worlds’ (Nahen) general conception of beauty. The imperfect nerve cells from which they manufactured their children eventually leads to incurable confusion. Their respiratory systems is designed to stop before their intellect ceased functioning. However, this only occurred after at least 200 years. Linguistics The Abh speak Baronh with its own writing system known as Baronh. Art Abh poetry is all fixed-form. The Abh claimed structural limitations makes their art more refined. Still, all Abh art is noticeably spectacular. History In the story it is revealed that the Abhs were originally engineered to be slaves (bioroids), meant to be used for deep space exploration. Their creators were a group of ultranationalistic East Asians (strongly implied to be Japanese) trying to recreate a “purified” version of their culture in space. One group of these bonded explorers left their space metropolis and chose not to return to their creators and instead form their own independent state. Unfortunately, their fear that their creators would send a punitive force to destroy them was too great and eventually these pioneering Abhs decided to launch a preemptive strike to destroy their creators’ space metropolis. In the process they discovered that their former masters were not strong enough to put up sufficient resistance resulting in their destruction. This created a sense of collective guilt among the founding fathers of the Abhs which they try to ease through adopting, protecting, developing, and passing on to their descendants the culture of their metropolis of origin. Origin In ancient times, on mankind’s planet of origin Earth, globalization led to cultural confusion which a small percentage of (Japanese) islanders had no intention of conforming. They refused to let the their culture become “contaminated with imports.” They left the planet and settled in one of Earth’s established orbital cities. They changed their language; parts were reconstructed from basic and or obsolete words, parts were made up. As time go by, they yearned to live on a planet (Nahen) again. Thus, they planned to leave the Solar System. Although, mankind discovered the yuanon particle and developed its application for interstellar travel, the ex-islanders’ aloofness isolated them from the rest of mankind. Mankind neglected to include them in their deep-space immigration and exploration plans. Therefore, the stubborn group plotted an independent space journey. Their only means of transportation was to use nuclear-fusion propulsion. Using forbidden science — human genetic engineering, they manufactured superhuman crew members to take their place for the long exploration journeys. Selecting the best parts from the genes of their best people, they created “30” beings who, despite appearances, were not considered human. To further distinguish them from natural humans, the scientists gave them all unnatural, blue hair. Many ships were sent, but most are presumed lost. One such deep space explorer ship, discovered the yuanon particle by chance. The crew converted their ship and continued their journey. Declaration of Establishment Immediately after discovering the yuanon, the original Abh announced their secession from the mother city. Of course, in deep space there was no one around to acknowledge their rebellion, but the crew of “29” wished to be an independent race. While in the nearby star system, the Abh ancestors gathered enough resources to construct a bigger ship, a flying city. Destruction of the Mother City Toyoashihara Although coldly sent into space against impossible odds, the Abh did not hate the mother city. However, they feared the mother city would send a disciplinary force. In hindsight, the diminished mother city at the time didn’t care to commit such resources. Using databases aboard the ship the Abh build weapons and conducted militaristic training. The navigation officers who instituted the program of military conditioning were direct ancestors of the Abriels. As soon as they felt prepared, the Abh returned to the Solar system in order to destroy the mother city. It was a quick war. By the time the Abh returned, the mother city had finally constructed its own yuanon-propelled ships and sent whole generations of brave souls into space, having written off their genetic creations as lost. When the Abh arrived, the mother city tried to convince the Abh that their ship’s data had corrupted them. Seeing this as nothing more than an attempt to regain control over them, the Abh cut off negotiations and attacked the mother city. Though the Abh were fewer in number, they were all soldiers with a wealth of weapons at their disposal. The citizens of the mother city hadn’t been involved in any kind of war for a considerable time. Thus, there was hardly any resistance at all when the city-ship, a veritable interstellar fortress, charged in. There were other nations in the Solar System, but none wanted to get involved for a number of reasons, the foremost being that the Abh were stronger than all the militaries in the Solar System put together. Wandering Age The Wandering Age is mostly shrouded in mystery, because in the year Before Empire 125 an accident on the city-ship Abriel destroyed the ship’s log, the only documentation of Abh history. Having their new city-ship the Abh began to roamed space. As the new ship offered them complete independence and self-sufficiency they traded with information. Mainly because the Abh were a young member of the human family and had neither culture nor any other information on anything that is not rocket science. Their lack of human contact and understanding caused many misunderstandings. This led the Abh to commit many crimes in retaliation against seemingly unfair treatment or dealings. This created a picture of ruthlessness of them in the eyes of their human relatives. Declaration of Establishment The Declaration of Establishment The Psychology Image Through history and propaganda many humans have come to believe that an Abh is an artificial machine-being that does not have any shred of humanity. There is a widespread believe the Abh have a hive behavioral gene. This is a perceptive impression based on some truth. The Abh do act and think more logical and practical which also lets them have more common sense. They also prefer directness, and hence, are more out for efficiency. As a whole the Abh think more alike than humans, and support their social and governmental decisions without much critic. This conformity supports their image as machine-being. Culture The space metropolis where the Abhs originated from was created to keep and reconstruct the culture of a certain land on Earth. In “Crest of the Stars”, this land is referred to as “islands in East Asia” and strongly implied that it is far-future Japan. Due to their feelings of collective guilt, the Abh founding fathers vowed to base their new culture on this “unadulterated” Japanese culture; but just like any living culture, it eventually changed, developed, and evolved as it is being transmitted from generation to generation. Nonetheless, even if they do not openly discuss it or write it down during the story, the Abhs do not deny the history of their “Volk” and “Kultur”, transmitting it instead as oral history. The other independent states in the story know of their origin, but they use (and distort) this information to spread anti-Abh propaganda. Baronh (the Abh language) itself developed from the Japanese used by these ultranationalists; an artificial form of Japanese devoid of foreign influence. The Abh have no concept of marriage but that does not mean that they do not have families. They love each other but do not marry; though a couple may live together for a short period of time or even remain together “‘Til death us do part”. The basic Abh family is a single-parent household, though some Abh like to live with their relatives. The Abhs gestate most often through the use of gestation machines, though, contrary to the belief of most non-Abhs, they do often conceive “naturally”. Those who conceive naturally most often remove the zygote or embryo from their own wombs to have it transferred to gestation machine, though some more eccentric women would, after a having the embryo genetically examined and modified to ensure its biological integrity as an Abh along with the maintenance of clan traits, have these zygotes or embryos replaced into their own wombs in order to carry it to full term naturally. Abhs sometimes ask sperm or egg donations from close relatives or even strangers, or the genetic material of people of their own gender or even clone themselves to reproduce. However, most Abhs have children out of heterosexual relationships with people whom they have fallen in love. The offspring of such a relationship is called a “son/daughter of love” (“Fryum/Fryuk Neg”). The Abh think that it is important to have and maintain unique clan or familial genetic/physical traits and traditions throughout the story. A clan may share physical features (Ūalitec) unique to themselves. For example, the Abriel, the imperial house, have elfish ears called Nuic Abriel (Ears of Abriel). Each clan has its own unique feature and it cannot be shared by other clans. In regard to clan traditions, it is important that a clan preserve and maintain the uniqueness and the practice of these traditions. It is indeed deemed a grave social offence in the story for one to publicly insult the traditions of other clans. It is for this reason that the Abhs take long “parenting” leaves to raise their children not only to personally supervise the primary education of their own children but to ensure that their traditions are passed on to their offspring. The hierarchy of Abh culture revolves around family status, or members of a nobility of magistrates. The Abh empire is socialist, where all ships and property is controlled by the empire, though some assets such as ships are loaned to private parties by the Emperor or Empress as evidenced in the prequel “Crest of the Stars”. Abhs celebrate and observe important life events and rites of passage, like birthdays and death anniversaries. Since they spend most of their life in space, they always feel uneasy whenever they do go on land. Abhs generally group social roles to three types: their role as soldiers of the empire, their role as businessmen of the empire, and, most important to them, their role as parents. Social stratification Social stratification is well defined within the Frybarec (Abh Empire). There are three general groupings: there are the Abhs (as a class), the Imperial citizens, and the subjects of the different feudal domains. The Abhs are legally defined as the titled aristocracy of the empire. The Imperial citizens are non-Abhs who are under the direct jurisdiction of the Empire. On the other hand, feudal subjects are those who are controlled by the Empire through the Lord of their planet or stellar system. The Abhs themselves are classified into three. On the pinnacle is the monarch (“speunaigh”) in the person of an emperor or an empress. The premier class is that of royalty (“fasanzœrh”). This class is exclusively occupied by one clan or gens with the nomen gentile of “Abriel”. This clan is composed of eight families, each with an inherited cognomen and each headed by a king or queen (“larth”). The monarch of the Abh Empire is chosen from a candidate from one of these families. Military service is compulsory amongst royalty; they are required to serve only under Flying (i.e., fighting) section of the Laburec. It is through a royal’s track record and promotions within the Flying section that will eventually allow him or her to become the heir-apparent to the imperial throne. Ranking below royalty in stature is the nobility (“simh”). The nobility is subdivided into two: the great lords or princes (“bhodac”) and the minor nobility. There are four ranks amongst the great lords. From the greatest, this would be the Grand Dukes or Grand Duchesses (“nimh”), the Dukes or Duchesses (“laicer”), the Marquises or Marchionesses (“lœbh”), and the Counts or Countesses (“dreuc”). They are deemed great lords because they are territorial magnates of inhabited planets. The possession of a single lordship of at least a single inhabited planet in a stellar system populated by less than one hundred million inhabitants automatically makes that domain a county. Higher status can be attained through an increase of population or other means. The minor nobility have two ranks, that of a viscount or viscountess (bœrh) and that of a Baron or Baroness (“lymh”). An uninhabited stellar system containing a planet that can be terraformed is deemed a viscountcy. A viscount is automatically promoted to become a count once he successfully terraforms and populates that planet. A barony on the other hand has no such planet within his domain. Like royalty, military service is also compulsory, it being a prerequisite to inheriting his domain and title; however, nobles are given the option serve in any section they wish. The third and lowest general rank amongst the Abhs are the knights or dames (reucec). Unlike nobles, they are not territorial magnates. Also, military service is not compulsory to them, though most serve anyway due to the salary and pension and also due to the prestige of distinguishing oneself there. Society Society within Wandering Age During the Wandering Age the Abh society was dominated by the ship’s department. The importance of a department was equal to the society status. It’s during this period that family clans formed from the department members as well as the establishment of physical features unique to them. King of the Ship During the wandering age captainship of the colony transformed into a governmental body, and the title was changed to “King of the Ship”. Society within Empire In order to control the territories of the Empire, the nobility was created to administrate them and to a certain degree govern them. Due to their administrative responsibilities their status is higher than citizens. Founding Family Clans The departments of the original ships crew essentially became the different families of the Abh Empire. Royalty The coats of arms of the Abriel is the same as the Empire’s. A Gaftonosh. The Eight Royal Families These are the actual families forming the Abriels. *Ballzédé - Balgzeder *Barke - Barker *Kryb *Larych - Lasiser *Ilik - Ilyrs *Skiil - Skirh *Sïullzédé - Shulgzeder *Wesko - Weskor Of the Zodiac The 28 founding families are all named after constellations named by the Japanese ancestors of the Abh. *Ruc *Aimh *Lomh *Loepoess *Dachoc *Aislairec *Bibauth - Bebaus *Cilych *Idaimh *Nych *Lobitec *Fimegaimec *Calyc *Dabaimec *Losaich *Tlaïmh *Sosïéc Spoor The coats of arms of the Spoor has a Golden Crow on a red background. This clan was responsible for maintaining engines and navigation equipment. They are one of the most influential clans and have many members with short tempers who are often bored. They detest menial tasks. *Aimenyrh *Snoech *Sarrych *Tlich *Lamcoemec *Duneucec *Cotoponic - Kotoponi *Lineucec *Larych *Beussaicec Life At an early age, Abh children are thrown into a padded cell with no gravity, where they master the laws of action and reaction and learn how to use their Alphas. This is necessary for their navigational lobe to develop while the brain isn’t fully developed yet. Stages of Life *military service/flyer *trader/merchant *parenthood Education In the past the new city-ship was so massive and complicated to operate there was simply not enough time to teach everyone how to perform all necessary duties. That’s when the Abh introduced their mentor-apprentice system of education, which eventually morphed into a system of hereditary education. The Abh do not have regular schools. Abh children are home-schooled by their guardians. The Abh do have schools for landed citizens and vassals. From their teen years on an Abh is eligible to apply for a military academy. Here they learn everything about their work life. As the only place to learn about plane space navigation it is necessary for a merchant to enroll into the academy. Family The Abh have a vastly more varied family concept than humans. Most common is a constellation of one genetic parent and a child. Less widespread is the familiar human form of a family: 2 parents and a child. Trivia *The Abh only take off their Alpha when bathing or sleeping. References Category:Factions